publication date: Aug 28, 2013

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author/source: Kate Faulkner, Property Expert and Author of Which? Property Books

Help to Buy Scheme

The Help to Buy Scheme has dominated the news headlines in recent months and taken up much of the media's 5-10 minutes of property news they cover weekly.

If you are working in the residential sector, then you seriously need to know everything you can about Help to Buy as it looks like it is going to drive much of the increased volume in sales over the next few years. 

Savills estimate it will increase property prices from 11.5% to 15% over the next few years and will deliver 400,000 new property purchases. 

As a broker and agent, you really need to know not just about Help to Buy, but Shared Ownership, NewBuy and Shared Equity purchase – and what is available locally. In the main, these schemes are available on new builds. What buyers need is help and advice at a local level of what properties can be bought, at what cost and if you can, guidance on the pros and cons for each of them. 

If as an agent you advise developers and have clients locally who haven’t taken up the Help to Buy Scheme, it might be worth talking to them to see if they should be offering the scheme on their properties. It doesn’t cost them anything and is available on new builds up to £600,000.

To advise consumers well, you need to get to know your local developers offering the scheme and better still, the local Help to Buy agent, visit the Help to Buy website to find out who to speak to. 

From a legal perspective, you need to know the pros and cons to advise buyers and understand the agreement for the first and second scheme, so working closely with a broker or local lenders is a good idea to make sure consumers really do understand the financial ups and downs. 

As a surveyor, it is worth making sure you are familiar with these schemes and even though it is currently only on new builds, bear in mind it will be expanding to second hand homes in January, so could help increase the number of surveys you need to carry out. 

For more information about Help to Buy, here’s the link to Government information, and the link to Help to Buy research/reports in the Property Information Portal.

For Industry Professionals - If you are you a property professional or journalist who needs up to date, accurate, facts and figures, or stats about residential property, subscribe to our Property Information Portal.   For Consumers - Sign up for FREE to Propertychecklists.co.uk to access Help to Buy checklists, plus many more buying and selling property checklists.

 
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